Death Warrant

Story

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as maverick cop Lou Burke, the only lawman tough enough to go undercover in a prison recently plagued by suspicious deaths. Posing as a hardened con, Burke stands up to sadistic guards and makes martial arts mincemeat out of brutal inmates, all the while investigating those mysterious murders. Following the standard Van Damme formula at the height of the actor's B-picture popularity, the script essentially inserts him in a series of increasingly nasty situations from which he then has to kick, punch, and chop his way out. For services rendered, the Muscles from Brussels gets to kiss Cynthia Gibb, who plays a lawyer assigned the dubious task of posing as Burke's wife. With Van Damme safely tucked into his story formula, a slightly more discriminating viewer can find pleasure in a supporting performance from Robert Guillaume (as an aging inmate), while freakier types will enjoy top-drawer nemesis the Sandman (Patrick Killpatrick), a psycho killing machine who forces poor Burke to break a sweat. --Tom Keogh